White Perch

Duke Nohe unhooked the fat 14-inch white perch from his spinnerbait lure, admired the catch and flatly proclaimed, "I fully believe that this is probably the best white perch water in the state."What Chesapeake Bay tributary were we fishing? None of them -- we were in Prettyboy Reservoir in northern Baltimore County.How those fish got from the Bay to Prettyboy is a mystery.The most popular theory is that the Department of Natural Resources either mistakenly or covertly planted them when they released hybrid striped bass in the reservoir some years back.

Tony Tochterman, who along with his wife, Dee, owns Tochterman's Fishing Tackle, the city's oldest bait and tackle store, remembers it well. Tony and Bob Wall, division chief of Baltimore's Recreation and Parks Department, helped introduce area children to fishing by hosting a tournament. As they led the group down the hill, rods in hand, the Inner Harbor slowly came into view and the children's eyes lit up. "Wow," one youth said. "That's the ocean. " Wrong. "They had never seen water before," Tochterman said.

Mow the lawn or head down to virtually any tidal tributary, where fat white perch are being taken from holes along the shoreline. It is an easy choice, really.The grass will still be there, but once the spawn is complete, the perch will flee downstream.Warm weather will do that -- make the grass grow and the fish bite.Fishing is good throughout most of the state in freshwater and tidal tributaries.Crappie fishing is good at Loch Raven, Rocky Gorge and Liberty reservoirs, as well as at Unicorn and Centennial lakes, the Patapsco valley ponds and Tuckahoe Lake.

Father and son, Fred and Brian Twigg, of Bel Air, would have had a memorable day fishing the Susquehanna on June 9, even without the catch that left the two bass anglers puzzled. In addition to the eight nice white perch they kept to eat and the three smallmouth bass they released to provide sport another day, they also boated a toothsome oddity more typically found in saltier water, an Atlantic needlefish. The creature, which struck a deep-running silver crank bait in about 12 feet of water off the northern end of Port Deposit near the former Townsend's Marina, was more than two feet long, 28 inches to be exact, though its garden-hose shaped body gave it only slightly more heft than a large white perch.

Fishing is fishing right now.We're riding on a seam between spring and summer, and action on the bay is different from one day to thenext.Bluefish, for example, are neither here nor there. Saturday, large schools of the 1- to 5-pound snappers moved north of what used to be buoy 54 in the Point No Point area and were headed in our direction. A nasty afternoon thunderstorm moved through the area, overturning small boats and causing havoc, and by Sunday, the bluefish had retreated several miles south, below the Target Ship.

The Woodpile settled to anchor on the edge of an oyster rock, where the water depth increased from 12 to 25 feet and the fish finder marked fish close to the bottom.The day was warm and calm, but the current was running well as the tide ebbed, and after a bloodworm was cut into 1-inch segments and the hooks of a double-bottom rig were baited, the fun began.Within seconds of sinker reaching bottom, a strike and a run that took a few yards of line off the light spinning reel, before the fish was brought to the boat and released.

The buzzards have returned to Hinkley, Ohio. The swallows have returned to Capistrano. And the ospreys have returned to the Magothy River.Spring has sprung.Each St. Patrick's Day the osprey comes home. I don't believe theosprey's following is in the same league as the buzzards and swallows, but for at least the last few years we have gone out of our way tolook for ospreys while drinking our green beer. And they have not disappointed.Now that spring has sprung, "Fishing Charlie" Ebersberger at Angler's Sport Center says it is time to go fishing, and I'll agree to that -- if you can get a nice day.The mackerel have started their run off Ocean City and the boats will be out daily.

Freshwater trout and white perch continue to provide the best fishing action for bank fishermen, and croaker continue to surprise tidewater anglers on the lower Eastern Shore.According to the Department of Natural Resources, medium to large croaker are being taken on hook and line from northern Tangier Sound to Upper Hooper's Island.The early arrival of croaker seems to coincide with the early movements of many tidewater species which have been influenced by the early warming trend this spring.

If the weather cooperates, Harford County anglers could be catching large numbers of chunky Susquehanna white perch by mid-April.Unfortunately, Mother Nature rarely listens to incessant whining from fishermen, despite the severity of their cabin fever. If she did, the river likely would be warm and clear instead of high, cold and muddy.Opening day of 1993's trout season last week, an event when anglers traditionally gather on the shores of Deer Creek to catch fish and bask in spring sun, was beset with water so muddy you could see raccoon tracks on the stream surface.

The locations Piney Run: Something must be in the water. Carroll countian George Waldner caught a striper that tipped the scales at a shade under 21 pounds in the upper portion of the reservoir with live bait. Glen Burnie's Mel Montgomery caught an 18-pound, 40-inch tiger muskie on a Rat-L-Trap. Bass are taking top-water plugs in the morning and evening. Bluegills are taking worms and grubs. Reserve a spot in the fall fishing tournament on Sept. 30 by calling 410-795-5165. Prettyboy Reservoir: Set up shop just off the gravel bars where the bottom drops off to deep water for good smallmouth-bass fishing.

After several years of discouraging results, Maryland fisheries officials say the number of juvenile striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay this summer was the fourth highest in the 58-year history of their annual census. The abundance of palm-sized newborns bodes well for those who catch — and those who eat — the official state fish, also known as rockfish. "We had a widespread good spawn in the bay. … In three to four years that will translate into excellent fishing," said Tom O'Connell, director of the Fisheries Service for the Department of Natural Resources.

Piney Run -- According to Jim Gronaw, chicken livers were able to catch rockfish, catfish and channel cats, while night crawlers were successful with white perch. Liberty Reservoir -- Anglers are lining up near the Nicodemus Bridge for the purpose of picking up white perch, crappie, blue gill and large and smallmouth bass, all on night crawlers. Doug Geis of Old Reisterstown Bait and Tackle said he expects this for the next three or four weeks. Susquehanna River -- Mike Benjamin of Herb's Tackle Shop reports few rockfish, "like everywhere else on the bay."

Liberty Reservoir, on the border between Carroll and Baltimore counties, is a popular spot for fishing. Built by Baltimore City for use as a public water supply, it was completed on July 8, 1954. However, it is also home to a number of fish species, including largemouth and smallmouth bass, bluegill, crappie and white perch. The reservoir also was stocked with striped bass between 1981 and 1984. They can now be caught in the 40-pound range, according to the state Department of Natural Resources Web site.

If you listened to the talk Monday night in Annapolis, you'd have come away wondering whether Maryland's yellow perch population is plentiful or pitiful. "Plentiful," proclaimed state fisheries biologists and watermen. "Pitiful," replied recreational anglers. Debating the future of wildlife resources goes back even further than the great Socratic exercises of "tastes great" vs. "less filling," and the merits of Certs as a candy mint or breath mint. Rockfish, oysters, crabs - no matter the critter, the outcome of these Department of Natural Resources informational meetings is always a confusing stew of anecdotal evidence, scientific numbers and conflicting passions.

ONE MILLION dollars sleeps with the fishes today. Tomorrow, who knows? The state is releasing 2,000 tagged fish - striped bass, largemouth bass, croaker and white perch - from secret sites around the Chesapeake Bay. The right fish caught between now and sundown July 18 could be worth $1 million. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is rolling out the six-week tournament on the shores of Sandy Point State Park this morning like Santa Claus on Christmas morning. But how do we know those fish are being sent a-swimming?